4 fun ways to play games at work & be successful

Games in the workplace have a variety of really positive effects like getting to know people, being able to loosen up, have fun and you can work together more positively as well. Jimmy Rhoades and HireStory’s Theresa Maher have four ways to play at work that will help you be more successful.

1. Bring the Games to the Office

You can do small things like bringing a ping pong table in, or having a gaming area in your office. This area helps define boundaries. Having a dedicated game or activity area makes it known where that kind of behavior is appropriate, versus somebody who's sitting there on deadline getting beaned in the back of the head by a paper wad. It’s probably not going to help the culture side very much.

2. Choose Inclusive Games

Really think about activities where everybody can feel comfortable participating, and that you don't have to have the heavy sports background to feel included. Something like kickball, for example.

3. Avoid Mean Games

Stay away from activities where there's a single loser like poker where you actually have a measurable of how poorly you did as an individual, or paintball where somebody feels like they were ganged up on.

4. Don’t Play Mean with the Guest List

One other thing you should always shy away from is creating that kind of "Mean Girls" clique. If you're going to have a work activity, invite everybody to be part of it.